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Previous | Image 1 of 4 | NextEric Idle of ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.’

Chicago – When the “Say No More Squire” Guy meets “Better Call Saul,” you know a memorable night is ahead. Monty Python’s Flying Circus member Eric Idle has written a new memoir, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” and Bob Odenkirk (who portrays the title character in “Better Call Saul”) was the moderator for an event at North Central College in Naperville (Ill.), sponsored by Anderson’s Bookshop.

Eric Idle titled his book after one of his most famous songs, featured at the end of the Monty Python film, “Life of Brian.” He later added it into the musical stage version of the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,’ the Mike Nichols’ directed “Spamalot.” Idle was born in Northeast England, where his mother escaped to during the bombings of World War II. He attended Cambridge University,

On The Pick of the Flicks Podcast, a different guest drops in every week to chat about their favourite movie. This week, film critic and journalist Stuart O’Connor chats about Monty Python’s religious satire Life of Brian…

This week, film critic and journalist Stuart O’Connor stops by to chat about the state of big screen comedy in 2018, while taking a look back at his favourite comedies of all time. His main choice is Monty Python’s Life of Brian – the incredibly controversial satire of organised religion that still feels brave even today.

See Also: Listen to last week’s podcast with filmmaker Mark Gillis talking about It’s a Wonderful Life

If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe on YouTube or iTunes/Apple Podcasts and leave us a comment, rating and review!

Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions,

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 50 years since the founding of the comedy troupe that gave us Silly Walks, Dead Parrots, Hell’s Grannies, the Argument Clinic and Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days, to name only a few of the classic Monty Python sketches, but as with other great comedy artists, from Laurel and Hardy to Chaplin, Keaton, Abbott and Costello and Lewis and Martin, there’s something timeless about the truly ridiculous in the hands of the truly brilliant.

A few years ago, Eric Idle told Rolling Stone he was working on his “posthumous memoirs.” He’s since had a change of heart. “The only trouble with posthumous memoirs is you don’t get paid ’til later,” he now jokes dryly, on a call from his Los Angeles home. So on October 2nd, he released Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography. “I wrote it just for myself first and sold it after I’d finished it,” he says. “I thought it would be more fun to do that,

Want something lighter? There are a number of comedies arriving on Netflix in October, including “Billy Madison,” “Blazing Saddles,” plus a pair of Monty Python features — “The Meaning of Life” and “Life of Brian,” which will arrive together on October 2. The streaming giant is also offering up some modern rom-coms to take the edge off a month of thrills and chills, including “Must Love Dogs,” “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,

A series of previously unseen Monty Python sketches have been discovered in Michael Palin’s archives. The unused script ideas include a Wild West bookshop and “amorous Pink Knight” storylines cut from iconic comedy Monty Python And the Holy Grail.

According to The Times, Palin gave the material to the British Library in London which will display a collection of Python notebooks later this month. The show is expected to reveal how much Holy Grail and controversial classic Life Of Brian were altered to prevent causing (further) offence.

BAFTA has appointed Ellen Johnson as its Director of Communications. In the newly created role Johnson will drive the charity’s marketing and comms strategy and will report directly to BAFTA Chief Executive Amanda Berry.

Johnson previously worked at Barclaycard and more recently at Comic Relief, where she was Head of Marketing and Communications and responsible for

A Wild West bookshop and an amorous pink knight never made it into “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” alongside the killer rabbit of Caerbannog and the Knights Who Say “Ni!”, but the unused sketches have been unearthed in the private archives of Python member Michael Palin.

The British Library confirmed the find to Variety, which was first reported by The Times of London. The sketches were written for “Holy Grail” but did not make the cut. Palin said that the Pythons – himself, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Terry Jones – often produced more material than was needed, and in this case “the story of the knights [of the Round Table] was enough.”

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” was released in 1975. An absurdist take on Arthurian legend, it was helmed by Jones and Gilliam. It has remained popular with sing-along versions and anniversary releases, and was the basis for the musical “Spamalot.

Exclusive: In its latest series play, Apple is closing a deal for the rights to turn the beloved Terry Gilliam-directed fantasy film Time Bandits into a TV series. I’m told the series will be developed as a co-production between Anonymous Content, Paramount Television and Media Rights Capital. Gilliam will be a non-writing executive producer alongside Anonymous Content and Mrc.

Released in 1980, Time Bandits is a dark, irreverent adventure about imagination, bravery and the nature of our dreams. It follows the time-traveling adventures of an 11-year-old history buff named Kevin who, one night, stumbles on six dwarfs who emerge from his closet. They are former workers of the Supreme Being who have stolen a map that charts all the holes in the space-time fabric, using it to hop from one historical era to the next in order to steal riches. Throughout the movie, they meet various historical and fictional characters,

The official Monty Python website has announced that Netflix has acquired almost all of the back catalogue of the legendary British comedy troupe.

Beginning April 15th, the streaming service will be home to the films Life of Brian, The Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life, along with the entire run of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It will also include the live shows Almost the Truth, Conquers America, Best Bits (Mostly), The Meaning of Monty Python, Personal Best, Fliegender Zirkus, and Monty Python Live (Mostly), as well as Eric Idle’s “What About Dick?” special.

Monty Python is heading to Netflix after the SVOD service secured international rights to all of the classic British comedies. The digital service has picked up the rights to movies including Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life of Brian as part of a package deal. They will initially air in the UK and Canada as well as other territories from April 15 and will be launched on Netflix in the U.S. later in the year. In addition to the library titles…

In his 1972 essay “Notes on Film Noir”, film critic-turned-screenwriter/director Paul Schrader wrote on how the genre was “not defined…by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood.” It’s a mood best described as ‘you’re screwed, pal.’

Cynicism has always been at the heart of film noir, a genre full of desperate characters clinging to the shadows of world that’s forgotten them. It’s a cynicism born out of post-War disillusionment and anxiety that spawned the genre’s heyday from the early-40s all the way through the mid-1950s when suddenly “Dragnet” and “Leave it To Beaver” were reaffirming America’s squeaky-clean Eisenhower-era view of itself.

But with the post-Watergate 70s and Cold War 80s came a new slew of anxieties as the genre evolved, this time with less Hollywood restrictions. That meant more sex, more violence,

Monty Python's Life of Brian is to get a worldwide theatrical release to celebrate its 40th anniversary after Trafalgar Releasing acquired the rights outside of the U.S. Trafalgar is to release the classic comedy, which was the British troupe's second feature film following the release of Holy Grail, in cinemas to celebrate the occasion. It has secured international rights outside of North America, Australia, New Zealand and French speaking territories. Trafalgar…

Is Luke Skywalker the true chosen one? Yoda never thought so, an idea revealed in a. new book called Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View. And that idea makes sense. Ever since we were first introduced to Yoda in Empire Strikes Back, he never really seemed to care for Luke, and was always apprehensive about the young Jedi in training, complaining that he was too young, not ready, and anything else that would get Obi-Wan to calm down and back off. But the biggest reveal came midway through Empire when Yoda reveals to Kenobi that there 'is another'.

And we learn that this other he speaks of is none other than Luke's own twin sister, Leia. Sure, Empire Strikes Back gave fans one of the biggest surprises in cinematic history when it divulged the true fact that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's real father. Return of the Jedi

“Well, nobody’s perfect,” may be the last line of “Some Like It Hot,” but BBC Culture’s newest list of the 100 greatest comedies of all time comes pretty darn close. Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing buddy comedy earned the most votes, but the rest of the list is as robust and varied as one would hope, containing slam dunk smash hits as well as lesser known hidden gems.

Read More:The 25 Best Comedies of the 21st Century, Ranked

The survey included responses from 253 film critics internationally, with freelancers writing in from Syria, Azerbaijan, and Montenegro. For a deeper dive into your favorite critics’ comedic tastes, each individual top ten list is also available for perusal. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich, and Kate Erbland participated; their number one picks were “City Lights,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” respectively.

After polling critics from around the world for the greatest American films of all-time, BBC has now forged ahead in the attempt to get a consensus on the best comedies of all-time. After polling 253 film critics, including 118 women and 135 men, from 52 countries and six continents a simple, the list of the 100 greatest is now here.

Brian, according to the gospel of the Monty Python crazies, was a cherub born in Jerusalem on the same night as Jesus, but in the manger next door, a coincidence that caused the three wise men to stumble across the wrong baby before shuffling off to the right stable. (Accidents will happen.) From then on, Brian's life is pure hell. And very funny to watch.

No, you’re not McDreaming this: Patrick Dempsey is coming back to the small screen.

In his first television role since Dr. Derek Shepherd’s untimely demise, Grey’s Anatomy star Dempsey has signed on to play a man at the center of a murder mystery in Epix’s The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, the network announced Tuesday.

The 10-part series is based on Joël Dicker’s novel of the same name and chronicles Harry Querbert’s experience as he’s indicted for murder after a teenage girl’s body is found on his property years after her disappearance.

June ended up being a particularly busy month of releases, and here’s a look at three different indie films that I had the opportunity to check out over the last several weeks:

Camera Obscura: For his feature film directorial debut, co-writer/director Aaron B. Koontz concocts his own “weird episode of Goosebumps” (to borrow a phrase from the film) in Camera Obscura, which feels like a mash-up of Shutter (the original, not the remake) and Final Destination, with a bit of a slasher twist thrown in for good measure. Koontz deftly maneuvers through familiar genre tropes to create an unexpected horror treat, anchored by a strong performance from Christopher Denham (Shutter Island, The Bay).

In Camera Obscura, we meet photographer Jack Zeller (Denham), who has been struggling with Ptsd after returning from shooting photos in the Middle East. His supportive fiancée, Claire (Nadja Bobyleva), decides to pick him

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